


A Most Loyal Servant

by bird_on_a_wire



Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: F/M, Longing, Slow Burn, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25371427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bird_on_a_wire/pseuds/bird_on_a_wire
Summary: written for the International Kissing Day hosted by the @TLKFanficFest on tumblr.
Relationships: Aethelflaed Lady of Mercia/Aldhelm (The Last Kingdom)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 17





	A Most Loyal Servant

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr, just migrating over here as well.

It is well past midnight when there is a knock on the chamber of Aldhelm's door. He hasn't slept yet, for sleep does not come easy to him as it once did. And while Mercian wine helps, he spends many nights sitting in front of the fire, hoping sleep would come and praying it does not, when he sleeps, he dreams. 

He stumbles to his feet, slightly more in his cups than he'd meant to be, and leans against the wall as he opens the door. Lady Aethelflaed is there, at his door, her hair loose and unbound, her bedgown pulled tightly around her. In his dreams, she always comes to him as a free woman. Beholden to no country, to no king, to no man. 

"My lady," Aldhelm says, the shock of her presence causing him to shake his head as if to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him. "Are you well?" 

Aethelflaed nods, looking over one shoulder and then the other to check that the hallway is empty. "May I enter?" 

Aldhelm swallows, his mouth dry from the wine, and steps back to open the door and allow the Lady of Mercia to enter. Her scent follows her, a mix of leather and spice, Aldhelm knows it well, and is addicted to it if he's honest. 

"Aldhelm," Aethelflaed says, leaning against his desk. "I've been drinking." 

"I see, my lady. Can I call a servant to fetch something for you?" 

Aethelflaed shook her head. "Not too much, just...enough." She licks her lips then, barely a swipe really, but the slip of soft pale pink between her lips shoots an unbridled flash of lust through Aldhelm. 

"My lady…" Aldhelm clears his throat. "Aethelflaed." It physically pains him to say the words. His chest aches and his fingers clench in white-knuckled fists. He has said these words to himself so many times they have become his mantra. Words he does not want to say, words he wishes to banish to hell's deepest depths. "We cannot." 

"But what if we did?" she says, and let loose the tie of her bedgown, the soft material falling open to reveal a nude and uninhibited Aethelflaed. 

Aldhelm has pictured this moment many times over, and yet all of it pales to the woman standing before him. 

"Why now?" He asks, his voice choking on the words. He knows he should avert his eyes and yet he is only a man, and what is a man against a divine entity such as this woman before him. 

"Aldhelm, I have fought so hard not to love you...and yet…I have always loved you." 

She walks toward him, though it is as though she floats on the air itself, coming to stand before him, close enough that he can feel the heat of her body radiating from her skin. "Perhaps at times differently then you wished, but you have always claimed space in my heart. And over time, this space has grown, has overtaken spaces I believed would never be claimed again." 

Aethelflaed's hand rests upon his cheek, the other pressing against the beating of his heart. "I am so lonely, and I wish to be kissed by the person who has loved me for the longest part of my life."

And so Aldhelm does what he always has, for England, for Mercia, for all that he holds true and dear. 

He obeys.


End file.
